PRESIDENT Trump contracted coronavirus and, in response, the world held a competition to determine who was the most awful person. Competition was fierce.
Many of the same people who had spent the week demanding President Trump condemn hate, immediately wished him dead when it was revealed he had COVID-19.
New York Times film critic Simon Abrams made a strong play for most awful person when he tweeted: “For once I am rooting for the virus”.
Former Liberal Party leader John Hewson was an early entry from Australia.
Hewson, who is best known for losing an unlosable election, didn’t offer any well wishes to the man who is famous for winning an unwinnable election.
He simply tweeted:
Question to Donald-Can you really get ill from a “Hoax”?
— John Hewson (@JohnRHewson) October 2, 2020
It was a fair effort at awful. But Hewson was no match for author Jane Caro.
“Does Trump really have COVID? Is this bullshit? Or what?” she tweeted.
And then she added: “For the record, I will be delighted to have my doubts about Trump’s Covid diagnosis proved wrong.”
Charming.
She later deleted the tweet but not before hundreds of her followers had liked her ability to put their awful into a pithy sentence they had the good sense not to write.
She was joined by hosts of Network Ten’s The Project who boast that the program is “news delivered differently” when “news distorted regularly” would be a more accurate description.
Like Caro, they speculated that Trump might have been lying about having coronavirus. After all, he lies about everything else, right?
Sydney Morning Herald columnist Jenna Price developed the theme.
“Does anyone believe him? Or is he trying for the sympathy vote?” she tweeted.
There was zero sympathy from Ten News political editor Peter van Onselen who tweeted:
I’m surprised Melania gave the Donald COVID-19 because she’s done such a good job socially distancing from him ?♂️
— Peter van Onselen (@vanOnselenP) October 2, 2020
Hilarious.
It was almost – but not quite – as funny as one of his ‘balanced’ newspaper columns in The Australian.
Van Onselen, who regularly co-hosts The Project, is no longer sure if he is an entertainer or a serious political commentator and so has become neither.
ABC broadcaster and producer James Findlay reacted to news that President Trump had a potentially life threatening illness by tweeting: “There’s a bottle of champagne in the fridge and it’s getting opened right now.”
And that’s how he tweets about people contracting a disease before he drinks!
The tweet was later deleted.
Occasional Sky News guest Dee Madigan had no such regrets about her awful tweet.
“2020 has slightly redeemed itself,” she wrote upon hearing the President and the First Lady had tested positive for Covid-19.
Imagine being so ghoulish that you believe your year gets better when someone you only know from television contracts a potentially life threatening illness.
When one of her 49,000 twitter followers chided her for being glad someone got become sick because politics, Madigan doubled down.
“idgaf,” she wrote, which is apparently how the cool kids write “I don’t give a f***”.
Telstra hoped the most awful person award might be given to a corporation.
Good luck getting Australia’s largest telco to provide fast internet, but they sure can deliver high speeds when pandering to woke Trump haters.
While Telstra staff took hours to sort out my last billing inquiry they needed hardly any time to mock President Donald Trump for contracting coronavirus.
Telstra’s official twitter account posted their message in response to Trump’s tweet, just 45 minutes earlier, advising that he and his wife had Covid-19:
Don't even try and blame 5G for this. https://t.co/rmamU3mPIY
— Telstra (@Telstra) October 2, 2020
If only Telstra’s customer service was as fast.
But not even Telstra could out awful Queensland Deputy Premier and Health Minister Stephen Miles.
The senior Australian politician, tweeting to the leader of Australia’s key ally, wrote:
Have you considered intravenous disinfectant? https://t.co/4QutsVmEil
— Steven Miles (@StevenJMiles) October 2, 2020
Stephen Miles doesn’t like Donald Trump. We get it. But surely puerile responses like this are unbecoming of a man within 1.5m of the Premier’s chair.
Donald Trump’s odds of recovering from COVID-19 are much better than the odds of Trump haters recovering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.
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James Macpherson is a sought after international speaker with a background in journalism at the Courier Mail and Daily Telegraph. He previously pastored a significant church in Australia and South Africa. James' weekly Good Sauce podcast comes out every Tuesday. He also writes regularly for The Spectator.
